By: Andrew Carmichael
“Words can’t express how much they mean to me, dem is me children,” expressed Rihanna Persaud, the mother who lost her nine-year-old daughter and eleven-year-old son within the space of two days, due to causes currently unknown.
The children died at in New Amsterdam Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
The girl, Arianna Mohabeer died on Monday while her brother, Ricardo Mohabeer died on Sunday.
The family, who resides at New Area Canefield East Canje, is demanding answers, and more importantly, justice.
The mother explained that her son had a fever for two days, and she was treating him at home, however, he became unresponsive on Sunday, causing her to rush him to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
But her son was pronounced dead on arrival.
An autopsy has since been performed on the child’s body.
“They say that he had cyst like cancer inside his belly. He use to cry out for belly pain and I does carry him to the hospital and they would do all kind of tests; ultrasound, x-ray and everything and they not finding no complain what wrong with him really,” the mother related to this publication.
Meanwhile, even before her son was rushed to the hospital, her daughter was already a patient there, having been admitted on Saturday, also with a fever.
The mother said the hospital was initially treating her daughter for dengue.
“Me ask them what they giving her and they say they giving her Panadol syrup and antibiotic.”
The 30-year-old woman, who also has two other children aged 3 and 15, explained that her sister would often be at the hospital.
“My sister say the nurse come and give her an injection and then she start to flatter and she fall and my sister grabble her and called the nurse and showed her what happening. The nurse tell her to give my daughter something sweet to drink. From since they give she the injection, the child start getting more heavy fever and falling more sick. Then at the last, they tell me that with the bacteria it cause a lung infection and so fluid in her lung and if it keep coming up it could cause difficulty breathing which could be life threatening,” the mother related.
Meanwhile, in a statement on Thursday, the Ministry of Health said it was while preparations were being made to transfer the little girl to the Georgetown Public Hospital, the child suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the Intensive Care Unit.
The statement noted too that the boy was brought into the hospital on Sunday, with no sign of life.
Nevertheless, the Ministry committed to a full investigation into both incidents.
“Me understand all dem thing but what I am saying is that I still need justice…,” the grieving mother expressed.
Specifically, she is calling for justice for her daughter. “I still need justice for her because they force and push up a ‘pee bag’ and buss up this child. They buss up my daughter.”
